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THE CHIMPANZEES OF HAPPY TOWN

Ensemble 360

Junction, Goole
Friday 19 April 2024, 10.00am / 1.15pm

Tickets: £3.50

1 free teacher ticket for every 10 tickets paid

Past Event
Home› What's on› THE CHIMPANZEES OF HAPPY TOWN

Celebrating the importance of love and happiness, Paul Rissmann’s hour-long musical retelling of Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees’s much-loved picture book returns.

Meet Chutney the Chimpanzee who, with one small act of planting a seed, transforms the lives of the entire town of Drabsville, and teaches its inhabitants to celebrate their differences and make life more colourful along the way!

With narration, visuals from the book and lots of music to introduce the musicians of Ensemble 360, this is a brilliant first concert for 3 – 7 year-olds.

About the Artists

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players. 

 

ENSEMBLE 360

Ensemble 360

The Stables, Milton Keynes
Wednesday 13 March 2024, 8.00pm

Standard: £22.50-£25
Under 25s: Free

Past Event
Home› What's on› ENSEMBLE 360

MOZART Amadeus, Trio in E flat K498 Kegelstatt

Andante
Menuetto
Rondo. Allegretto

This is Mozart’s only trio for his three favourite instruments: clarinet, viola and piano. The nickname ‘Kegelstatt’ means ‘skittle alley’, and legend has it that Mozart wrote the work during a game of skittles. This may be far-fetched, especially given the rather noble character of the music, but what is certain is that he wrote the trio in Vienna, and entered it in his own thematic catalogue on 5 August 1786. The first movement is a marvellous example of Mozart’s invention at its most concentrated and unforced: every element in this sonata-form movement derives from the ornamental turn that is such a distinctive feature of the opening. The Minuet surprises by its almost grand character – no mere courtly dance, but something more imposing – and this is followed by an unhurried Rondo that brings this radiant work to a lyrical conclusion.

© Nigel Simeone

MOZART Wolfgang Amadeus, Clarinet Quintet in A K581

Allegro 
Larghetto 
Menuetto 
Allegretto con variazioni  

The Clarinet Quintet was completed on 29 September 1789 and written for Mozart’s friend Anton Stadler (1753–1812). The first performance took place a few months later at a concert in Vienna’s Burgtheater on 22 December 1789, with Stadler as the soloist in a programme where the premiere of the Clarinet Quintet was a musical interlude, sandwiched between the two parts of Vincenzo Righini’s cantata The Birth of Apollo, performed by “more than 180 persons.” 

From the start, Mozart is at his most daringly beautiful: the luxuriant voicing of the opening string chords provides a sensuously atmospheric musical springboard for the clarinet’s opening flourish. The rich sonority of the Clarinet Quintet is quite unlike that of any other chamber music by Mozart, but it does have something in common with his opera Così fan tutte (premièred in January 1790), on which he was working at the same time. In particular, the slow movement of the quintet, with muted strings supporting the clarinet, has a quiet rapture that recalls the trio ‘Soave sia il vento’ (with muted strings, and prominent clarinet parts as well as voices) in Così. The finale of the Quintet is a Theme and Variations which begins with folk-like charm, then turns to more melancholy reflection before ending in a spirit of bucolic delight. 

Nigel Simeone © 2012 

SCHUBERT Franz, Piano Quintet in A major D667, ‘The Trout’

Allegro vivace 
Andante 
Scherzo: Presto 
Theme and Variations: Andante 
Allegro giusto 
 

Silvester Paumgartner was a wealthy amateur cellist who lived in Steyr, Upper Austria, and an enthusiastic supporter of Schubert and his music. After playing Hummel’s Piano Quintet Paumgartner wanted a quintet for the same combination of instruments (violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano) from Schubert, who visited in the summer of 1819 (and again in 1823 and 1825). Paumgartner also wanted a work that included reference to Schubert’s song Die Forelle, The Trout, which had been composed in 1817. For Schubert, his visits to Paumgartner in the Upper Austrian countryside were a delight, a chance to make music, enjoy good company and revel in the spectacular scenery. 

 

Willi Kahl, writing in Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music wrote that ‘the fundamental tone of the piece is defined by the persistence of a major key throughout’ – underlining that this is among Schubert’s most genial chamber works. The first movement is brilliant but never flashy while the Andante is the expressive core of the work, suggesting, Kahl believed, ‘a moonlit night-song from the Styrian landscape’. The Scherzo is muscular and energetic, with a more easy-going central Trio section. In the first three variations, the theme is heard in its original form (on a different instrument each time) and remains clearly recognisable in the more freely worked fourth and fifth variations. In the last variation, Schubert brings the Quintet back to the original song as the unmistakable figurations of the song’s piano accompaniment are heard for the first time, to utterly enchanting effect. The finale is amiable and untroubled (though not without a couple of surprises), bringing this most affable of works to a properly jubilant close. 

 

© Nigel Simeone  

About the Artists

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players. 

 

THE CHIMPANZEES OF HAPPY TOWN

Ensemble 360 & Elinor Moran

The Stables, Milton Keynes
Wednesday 13 March 2024, 11.00am / 1.00pm

Please call 01908 280800 to book

Past Event
Home› What's on› THE CHIMPANZEES OF HAPPY TOWN

Paul Rissmann’s much-loved musical retelling of Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees’s best-selling picture-book returns. Meet Chutney the Chimpanzee who, with one small act of planting a seed, transforms the lives of the entire town of Drabsville, and teaches its inhabitants to celebrate their differences and make life more colourful along the way!

With narration, visuals from the book and lots of music, this is brilliant first school/family concert for 3-7 year-olds. Before the concert why not buy the book, download the free participation pack, use the Learn the Songs YouTube videos and other learning and participation resources at: https://linktr.ee/mitr_learnin…

Free twilight teachers/educators INSET session for participating groups on Tuesday 6 February, 4.30-6pm. Contact education@stables.org for more information.

About the Artists

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players. 

 

Elinor Moran

Elinor is in demand as a vocal workshop leader and animateur. She regularly works in learning and participation teams with such companies as ROH, ETO, Opera North, Snape Maltings, Garsington Opera and as far away as The Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus in Toronto.

Elinor has just returned from singing with André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra as a soloist on a world tour. She was a soloist on a SONY BMG recording “The Best Of Gilbert And Sullivan” which reached the top of the Classical Chart and can be heard on Blossom Street’s new Naxos recording of choral music by female composers “This Day”. Her recent roles include Mimi La Boheme (in the Olivier Award winning OperaUpClose production at the Soho Theatre and Charing Cross Theatre and Tour) and she has been the recipient of a Garsington Opera Chorus Award. 

Elinor studied voice at Chetham’s School Of Music and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 2012 she performed a dance role in Danny Boyle’s Olympic Opening Ceremony but has since put away her hip hop shoes (until the right future opportunity…).

SIR SCALLYWAG AND THE GOLDEN UNDERPANTS

Ensemble 360

EM Forster Theatre, Tonbridge
Saturday 10 February 2024, 2.00pm / 4.30pm

Adult £12
Child £5
Family ticket (2 adults + 2 children) £30

Past Event
Home› What's on› SIR SCALLYWAG AND THE GOLDEN UNDERPANTS

When King Colin’s golden underpants go missing, it’s Sir Scallywag to the rescue! Brave and bold, courageous and true, he’s the perfect knight for the job … even if he is only six years old!

Original music by Music in the Round’s children’s Composer-in-Residence, Paul Rissmann, features instruments including strings, woodwind, and horn, presented together with story-telling and projected illustrations from the best-selling children’s book by Giles Andreae and Korky Paul.

Performed by the wonderfully dynamic and hugely engaging Ensemble 360 in conjunction with Music in the Round, this concert is a great introduction to live music for children. It’s full of wit, invention, songs and actions, and plenty of opportunities to join in.

For 3–7 year-olds and their families

About the Artists

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players. 

 

THE CHIMPANZEES OF HAPPY TOWN

Ensemble 360 & Caroline Hallam

Junction, Goole
Saturday 23 March 2024, 2.00pm

Tickets £7

Past Event
Home› What's on› THE CHIMPANZEES OF HAPPY TOWN

Celebrating the importance of love and happiness in everyone’s lives, Paul Rissmann’s much-loved musical retelling of Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees’s best-selling picture-book returns.  

Meet Chutney the Chimpanzee who, with one small act of planting a seed, transforms the lives of the entire town of Drabsville, and teaches its inhabitants to celebrate their differences and make life more colourful along the way!   

With narration, visuals from the book and lots of music to introduce the musicians of Ensemble 360, this is a brilliant first concert for 3 – 7 year-olds. 

About the Artists

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players. 

 

SHEFFIELD JAZZ 50TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
Saturday 18 May 2024, 7.15pm

£20
£18 Over 60, Disabled & Unemployed
£10 Students with NUS
£5 15-17 year-olds
Under 15s free

*Sheffield Jazz tickets do not qualify for any other Music in the Round ticket offers or discounts.

Past Event
Home› What's on› SHEFFIELD JAZZ 50TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

EMMA RAWICZ saxophones
IVO NEAME piano
CONOR CHAPLIN bass
ASAF SIRKIS drums
**
TONY KOFI saxophones
JONATHAN GEE piano
BEN HAZLETON bass
ROD YOUNGS drums

A very special concert, a double bill, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sheffield Jazz and its predecessors. It features two great all-star bands led by multi-award winning British Jazz musicians, one of whom is a longstanding favourite with Sheffield audiences and another who has made a huge impression in the past couple of years.

Described as “an astonishing new talent” by Jamie Cullum, rising star saxophonist and composer Emma Rawicz is already making waves on the UK scene. She has a unique sound, fusing many influences from lilting Afro-Cuban inspired grooves to modern jazz and funk numbers. Emma has already recorded two albums of original compositions, with her second, ‘Chroma’, released on the prestigious German label ACT, garnering numerous 4 star reviews.

One of the most popular jazz musicians (both in the UK and internationally), Tony Kofi is a saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist, whose list of collaborators reads like a Who’s Who of jazz. Having cut his teeth in the Jazz Warriors of the early 90’s, Tony has gone on to establish himself as a musician, teacher and composer of real authority. He leads and co-leads several groups, including this quartet which is dedicated to the music of Thelonious Monk.

Please note there will be an interval of 30 minutes for this event.

“A young musician who is destined to be a major voice in the music both as an instrumentalist and composer.”

Jazz Views about Emma Rawicz

“There is so much respect in jazz circles for Tony Kofi.”

Jazzwise

ENSEMBLE 360

Ensemble 360

Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford on Avon
Sunday 5 May 2024, 7.30pm

Full price: £24
Under 25s: Free

Past Event
Ensemble 360 string musicians in performance
Home› What's on› ENSEMBLE 360

Woodwind and strings balance in perfect harmony

SUK Meditation on an Old Czech Chorale ‘St. Wenceslas’ Op 35a
COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Clarinet Quintet Op 10
HOWELLS Rhapsodic Quintet Op 31
DVOŘÁK String Quartet in F major No 12 Op 96 ‘American’

Praised by The Guardian as “one of the most adaptable chamber groups in the country”, Ensemble 360 is renowned for its virtuoso performances, bold programming and engaging interpretations of music. They present a sumptuous evening of music, with masterpieces ranging from Herbert Howells’s mystical Rhapsodic Quintet to Dvořák’s profound ‘American Quartet’. At the heart of this programme, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s exquisite Clarinet Quintet is arguably the composer’s greatest achievement in chamber music.

Don’t miss the Pre-concert Supper Club.

SUK Josef, Mediation on the Old Czech Chorale

Josef Suk, a student of Antonín Dvořák and later his son-in-law, was a composer with a distinct artistic voice and strong ties to Czech musical heritage. His composition, the “Meditation on an Old Czech Chorale,” pays homage to the Bohemian patron saint, St. Wenceslas, and was written when a member of the Bohemian String Quartet to supplement the obligatory playing of the Austrian national anthem (after 1914) with a more distinctively Bohemian piece, and prayer for the wellbeing of the Czech people.

The “Meditation on an Old Czech Chorale’” is a single-movement for string quartet, which was later expanded into a version for string orchestra, adding a double bass line, and later still adapted for violin and organ. Suk‘s use of the violin as the leading voice enhances the expressive nature of the piece, allowing for moments of spiritual contemplation. The work commences with a solemn and tender introduction, featuring the initial statement of the hymn melody. Through subtle variations, this simple melody moves from serene introspection to intense and soaring passages as a recurring motif. The piece reaches a climax with the violin in its highest register, conveying a profound yearning. It gradually fades away, into tranquility.

COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Samuel, Clarinet Quintet Op.10

Allegro energico
Larghetto affettuoso
Scherzo. Allegro leggiero
Finale. Allegro agitato – Poco più moderato – Vivace

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born in London and entered to Royal College of Music in 1890 to study the violin. His ability as a composer soon became apparent, and he studied composition with Stanford, becoming one of his favourite pupils. His Piano Quintet Op.1 (1893) heralded the arrival of a remarkable talent, but the Clarinet Quintet, composed in 1895, demonstrates Coleridge-Taylor at the height of his creative powers. Stanford had given his students a challenge, declaring that after Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet, written in 1891, nobody would be able to escape its influence. Coleridge-Taylor couldn’t resist trying, and when Stanford saw the result he is said to have exclaimed ‘you’ve done it!’ Coleridge-Taylor took his influences not from Brahms but from another great contemporary composer: in places this work sounds like the clarinet quintet that Dvořák never wrote. That’s a mark of Coleridge-Taylor’s wonderfully fluent and assured writing. The sonata form first movement is both confident and complex, with the clarinet forming part of an intricately-woven ensemble texture. The Larghetto has a free, rhapsodic character, dominated by a haunting main theme. The Scherzo delights in rhythmic tricks while the central Trio section is more lyrical. The opening theme of the finale governs much of what follows until a recollection of the slow movement gives way to an animated coda. The first performance took place at the Royal College of Music on 10 July 1895, with George Anderson playing the clarinet. Afterwards, Stanford wrote to the great violinist Joseph Joachim describing the piece as ‘the most remarkable thing in the younger generation that I have seen.’

HOWELLS Herbert, Rhapsodic Quintet for Clarinet and Strings Op.31 

Lento, ma appassionato – A tempo, tranquillo – Piu mosso, inquieto – Doppio movimento ritmico, e non troppo allegro – Più elato – Meno mosso – Lento, assai tranquillo – Più adagio 

Herbert Howells is probably best remembered for his church music (including the famous hymn tune ‘All my hope on God is founded’ as well as several outstanding settings of service music) and for his choral masterpiece Hymnus paradisi. But he was also a gifted composer for instruments and wrote a good deal of chamber music at the start of his career. The Rhapsodic Quintet was completed in June 1919 and Howells himself said that there was ‘a mystic feeling about the whole thing’. Still, mystic feelings didn’t come without some serious hard work, and the Howells scholar Paul Spicer has drawn attention to an entry in the composer’s diary where he noted that the quintet had involved quite a lot of preparatory thinking. Howells wrote of his ‘long ponderous thoughts on problems of musical form … hours spent in an easy-chair, fire-gazing, form-thinking.’ The ‘form-thinking’ was clearly productive, since this beautifully written quintet for clarinet and strings in one movement appears to flow effortlessly from one idea to the next as well as having overall coherence. This was an early work – Howells had only recently finished his studies at the Royal College of Music with Stanford and Charles Wood – but his handling of the instruments shows tremendous assurance. Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music makes particular mention of this, describing the work as having a ‘sensitive appreciation of instrumental needs’, but there is more to it than that, since Howells also shows a great gift for unfolding long, lyrical melodies, and contrasting these with more capricious ideas. It’s this combination of fluent and idiomatic writing with memorable thematic material that led Christopher Palmer, in his biography of Howells, to call the Rhapsodic Quintet ‘an outstanding achievement’.  

DVOŘÁK Antonin, String Quartet in F Op.96 ‘American’

Allegro ma non troppo
Lento
Molto vivace
Finale. Vivace ma non troppo

Dvořák was teaching in New York in 1893, and for his summer holiday he travelled over a thousand miles westwards, to the village of Spillville in Iowa, set in the valley of the Turkey River. It had been colonized by Czechs in the 1850s and in these congenial surroundings Dvořák quickly wrote the String Quartet in F major. On the last page of the manuscript draft, he wrote: ‘Finished on 10 June 1893, Spillville. I’m satisfied. Thanks be to God. It went quickly.’

Coming immediately after the ‘New World’ Symphony (which was to have its triumphant première in New York later in the year), the quartet has a mood that suggests something of his contentment in Spillville. Dvořák’s assistant Josef Kovařík recalled the composer’s routine: walks, composing, playing the organ for Mass and talking to locals, observing that he ‘scarcely ever talked about music and I think that was one of the reasons why he felt so happy there.’

Just how ‘American’ is the quartet? While remaining completely true to himself, Dvořák admitted that ‘as for my … F major String Quartet and the Quintet (composed here in Spillville) – I should never have written these works the way I did if I hadn’t seen America’. The first performance was given in Boston on New Year’s Day 1894 by the Kneisel Quartet.

© Nigel Simeone

About the Artists

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players. 

 

RELAXED FAMILY CONCERT: THE CHIMPANZEES OF HAPPY TOWN

Ensemble 360 & Lucy Drever

Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford on Avon
Sunday 5 May 2024, 2.00pm

Full price: £12
Students/ Under 18s: £7

Past Event
Home› What's on› RELAXED FAMILY CONCERT: THE CHIMPANZEES OF HAPPY TOWN

Meet Chutney the Chimpanzee who, with one small act of planting a seed, transforms the lives of the entire town of Drabsville, and teaches its inhabitants to celebrate their differences, making life more colourful along the way!

Celebrating the importance of love and happiness, Paul Rissmann’s hour-long musical retelling of Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees’s much-loved picture book is performed by Ensemble 360 and narrator Lucy Drever. With narration, visuals from the book and plenty of chances to join in, this is a brilliant concert for 3 – 7 year-olds.

About the Artists

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players. 

 

Lucy Drever

Lucy Drever is a presenter, workshop leader and narrator. She regularly presents and leads workshops with some of the leading orchestras, arts venues and music charities in the UK including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Wigmore Hall and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra of which she is Associate Artist. She has recently narrated concerts for Lambert Jackson at the London Palladium and is the Head of Creative Learning at the Benedetti Foundation. Furthermore, she was recently appointed trustee of the Samuel Gardner Memorial Trust.

Lucy works in a variety of settings including arts venues, schools, Early Years spaces, hospitals, conservatoires and prisons. As well as education consultancy she works across various industries, helping people with their presenting and public speaking skills.

Read more.

SOUNDS OF NOW: ROTATIONS

Tabea Debus & Samuele Telari

Woolwich Works, Woolwich
Thursday 7 March 2024, 8.00pm

Full price: £13
Students/ Under 18s/ UC: £11.25

Past Event
Home› What's on› SOUNDS OF NOW: ROTATIONS

A unique programme of music and movement, inspired by the physicality of Roosendael’s Rotations, created by virtuoso recorder player Tabea Debus and dazzling accordion player Samuele Telari, in collaboration with award-winning choreographer Sally Marie whose choreography is performed by dancer Elisa Blasi.

Featuring a new commission and works from giants of twentieth century music, the show’s choreography of the musicians makes full use of the ‘in the round’ setting.

This performance has no interval. There will be a post-show Q&A with the artists.

PÄRT – Pari Intervallo
BARTÓK – Pe loc (From Six Romanian Folk Dances)
ROOSENDAEL – Rotations for solo recorder
BARTÓK – Buciumeana (From Six Romanian Folk Dances)
LIM – slowly, turning
SEMIONOV – Allegretto (From Bulgarian Suite)
BACH –Siciliano, Largo (From Sonata in c-Moll BWV 1017)
CARDINI – Would you keep a secret?
BARTÓK – Poargă românească & Mărunte (From Six Romanian Folk Dances)
HOSOKAWA – Sen V for solo accordion
PÄRT – Spiegel im Spiegel

 

Find out more and join the conversation here.

Presented by Music in the Round, in partnership with the Young Classical Artists Trust.

Thanks to the Hinrichsen Foundation for supporting Sounds of Now.

About the Artists

Tabea Debus

“Neat, unforced, beautifully articulated.” – The Times

Described by The Times as a charismatic virtuoso, Tabea Debus is constantly exploring the horizons of music for recorder and has performed widely across Europe, Asia, North and South America. Tabea’s keen interest in contemporary music for recorder has led to numerous collaborations with composers throughout the UK and beyond. She has premiered new works at LSO Soundhub, at the Barbican Centre’s Sound Unbound and Baroque at the Edge festivals, worked with composers including Philip Cashian, Freya Waley-Cohen, Moritz Eggert and Alex Nante, and has appeared as soloist in contemporary recorder concertos with the WDR Rundfunkchor at the Funkhaus in Cologne and the English Chamber Orchestra at Cadogan Hall. In 2020 the recorder solo Diaries of the Early Worm by Gareth Moorcraft, which Tabea premiered and recorded, won the solo/duo category at the Ivors Academy Awards. Read more.

Samuele Telari

‘His musicianship is so big, so irrepressible, that he transcends the instrument that he’s playing’ (BBC Record Review).

Sought after as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher, Samuele’s recent solo engagements include recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Berlin Konzerthaus. 

Highlights during 2023 include his debut at the Trasimeno Festival in Italy with Angela Hewitt and a ‘Story Teller’ event for the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg) with mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska. He returns to the MiTO Festival in Milan and Torino to perform Mussorgsky’s Pictures alongside a newly commissioned arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, and will be resident at the Machynlleth Festival in Wales. Read more. 

SOUNDS OF NOW: LIGETI QUARTET PLAYS ANNA MEREDITH

Ligeti Quartet

Woolwich Works, Woolwich
Thursday 11 April 2024, 8.00pm

Full price: £13
Students/ Under 18/ UC: £11.25

Past Event
Home› What's on› SOUNDS OF NOW: LIGETI QUARTET PLAYS ANNA MEREDITH

The critically-acclaimed Ligeti Quartet share tracks from their new album fusing acoustic and electronic music for string quartet by the Mercury-prize nominated composer.

Anna Meredith has achieved incredible success straddling multiple musical worlds, never compromising her raw, individual style. This concert is based around the Ligeti Quartet’s new album, Nuc, providing a survey of Meredith’s career to date, heard through her original works for string quartet.

Nuc was released by Mercury KX on 14 April 2023 and launched in Sheffield with Music in the Round. It started life as a conversation between Anna Meredith and Richard Jones (Ligeti Quartet’s viola player) after realising that after a decade of frequently working together, they had almost an album’s worth of music. So an idea developed in which they would not only make the first studio recordings of Anna’s original music for string quartet, but that Richard (whose previous collaborations include Alex Turner, Jessie Ware and The Waeve), would create new arrangements of existing tracks by Anna including from her award-winning electronic and dance albums.

The result is a joyful, occasionally furious, never too serious, energetic/restful collection of tracks which dazzle with Anna’s signature compulsive harmonies, rhythmic shifts of gear and sparkling textures.

To accompany performances the Ligeti Quartet, with funding from Arts Council England have commissioned Ewan Morris Jones, animator and long-term Anna Meredith collaborator, to design a set of projections. He also designed the video for the first single Tuggemo, featuring a melee of plant, animal and mineral creations which swarm together as the song swells. Created using a combination of 2D animation and AI techniques, the visual is a compelling, colourful and hypnotic evolution story.

About the Artists

Ligeti Quartet

The ​Ligeti ​Quartet ​have ​been ​at ​the ​forefront ​of ​modern ​and ​contemporary ​music since ​their ​formation ​in ​2010. ​They ​have ​established ​a ​reputation ​as ​one ​of ​the ​UK’s leading ​ensembles, ​breaking ​new ​ground ​through ​innovative ​programming ​and championing ​of ​today’s ​most ​exciting ​composers ​and ​artists.

Find out more.

THE BRIDGE ENSEMBLE

Bridge Ensemble

Howden Minster, Howdenshire
Thursday 18 April 2024, 1.00pm

FREE TICKETS

Past Event
Home› What's on› THE BRIDGE ENSEMBLE

VALERIE COLEMAN  Umoja (3′)
OTTO MORTENSEN Quintette (18’)
PAUL HINDEMITH Quintet (15′)
ARTURO MÁRQUEZ Danza de Mediodia (10′)
FLORENCE PRICE Adoration (4′)
VALERIE COLEMAN  Red Clay (6′)
ỌLÁ AKINDIPE  Èkó Scenes (10′)

Howdenshire Music’s first lunchtime concert of 2024! Featuring the exciting young Bridge Ensemble, supported by Music in the Round.

Introducing the Bridge Ensemble to East Yorkshire, a wind quintet who champion music by marginalised composers from backgrounds under-represented in chamber music.

Opening with Valerie Coleman’s joyous Kwanzaa dance ‘Umoja’ and concluding with a brand new Afrobeat inspired work by the group’s clarinettist Ọlá Akindipe, this is an inviting tour through unjustly overlooked works.

Please note a change in programme as originally advertised.

MUSIC FOR OBOE & STRINGS

Ensemble 360

Cast, Doncaster
Saturday 22 June 2024, 7.15pm

Tickets*
£16
£13 (Under 26s)

*Box office charges may apply

Past Event
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BRITTEN Phantasy Quartet Op.2 (13′)
ELGAR Andante and Allegro (7′)
MOZART String Quartet in D K.499 (25′)
FINZI Interlude for strings and oboe (11′)
CLARKE Poem for string quartet (10′)
BAX Oboe Quintet (18′)

Ensemble 360 returns with a captivating programme of virtuosic music which combines the haunting world of the oboe with the richness of the strings. Featuring one of Benjamin Britten’s most assured early works, alongside Bax’s celebrated quintet and Rebecca Clarke’s haunting ‘poem’ for string quartet. This is a captivating programme centred on exquisite English music for oboe, beautiful miniatures and expansive chamber music.

BRITTEN Benjamin, Phantasy Quartet in F sharp minor

Andante con moto – Allegro vivace – Andante con moto

Bridge had already been successful in Walter Wilson Cobbett’s competition to write a ‘Phantasy’ – Cobbett’s reinvention of the Elizabeth Fantasy as new single-movement chamber works – and in 1910 he (along with Vaughan Williams and others) was commissioned by Cobbett to compose a Phantasy Piano Quartet. It’s a work in a satisfying arch form based on free-flowing musical ideas all of which derive from the powerful opening gesture. Bridge’s most famous pupil, Benjamin Britten, wrote in a programme note for the Aldeburgh Festival about this piece. He described the music as ‘Sonorous yet lucid, with clear, clean lines, grateful to listen to and to play. It is the music of a practical musician, brought up in German orthodoxy, but who loved French romanticism and conception of sound—Brahms happily tempered with Fauré.’

Nigel Simeone 2013

ELGAR Edward, Andante and Allegro for oboe and strings

This very early piece, composed in about 1878, was probably written to be played at the Worcester Glee Club. The manuscript in the British Library is, curiously, headed ‘Xmas music’ on the oboe part. The Andante is graceful, and the second movement is reminiscent of a Mendelssohn Scherzo.

Nigel Simeone 2013

MOZART Amadeus, String Quartet in D K499

1. Allegretto
2. Menuetto and Trio. Allegretto
3. Adagio
4. Allegro

 

Like Haydn before him, Mozart habitually published his string quartets in groups of six (the ‘Haydn’ Quartets) or three (the ‘Prussian’ Quartets). Between these two sets there is a single work, entered in Mozart’s manuscript catalogue of his own works on 19 August 1786 as ‘a quartet for 2 violins, viola and violoncello’. The autograph manuscript (in the British Library) is simply titled ‘Quartetto’. It was published in 1788 by the Viennese firm founded by Mozart’s friend Franz Anton Hoffmeister and it has come to be known as the ‘Hoffmeister’ Quartet as a result. The first movement opens with a theme in octaves that outlines a descending D major arpeggio – an idea that dominates much of the movement despite some startling harmonic excursions along the way. The development section is marked by almost continuous quaver movement that gives way magically to the opening theme at the start of the recapitulation. The Minuet has an easy-going charm that contrasts with the sterner mood (and minor key) of the Trio section. The great Mozart biographer Alfred Einstein thought the Adagio spoke ‘of past sorrow, with a heretofore unheard-of-depth’. It is not only a deeply touching movement but also an extremely ingenious one, not least when the initial idea heard on two violins returns on viola and cello, investing the same music with a darker, richer texture. The finale is fast and playful, but there’s also astonishing inventiveness in the flow of ideas, from the opening triplets with their chromatic twists to a contrasting theme which scampers up and down the scale. A few sudden and surprising dynamic contrasts keep the listener guessing right to the end.

 

Nigel Simeone

FINZI Gerald, Interlude for Strings and Oboe

Gerald Finzi began work on this piece in 1932 but only completed it four years later, in 1936. The first performance was given at the Wigmore Hall by Leon Goossens (to whom Finzi subsequently dedicated the work) and the Menges Quartet, on 24 March 1936. Finzi was particularly touched by Goossens’s enthusiasm for the piece, having been unsure if the great oboist would be interested in the work: a nervous composer wrote to his friend Howard Ferguson: “I see that Leon, the pride of oboeland, is playing with the Isolde Menges Quartet … Perhaps he’ll say that the Interlude isn’t big enough for him.”

He needn’t have worried, but this lovely work is just one of four published pieces of chamber music by Finzi.

 

Nigel Simeone © 2012

BAX Arnold, Oboe Quintet

Tempo molto moderato – Allegro moderato – Tempo primo
Lento espressivo
Allegro giocoso – Più lento – Vivace

 

Bax wrote his Oboe Quintet in 1922, just after completing the first of his seven symphonies. The inspiration for writing a work for oboe and strings was the playing of the great oboist Leon Goossens, to whom the work is dedicated. Bax’s biographer Lewis Foreman has drawn attention to the Irish elements in the music of this work: not only the jig-like final movement, but also in some of the atmospheric writing earlier in the work. The first movement begins with some richly harmonized string chords, and the oboe’s first entrance is rhapsodic, and rather melancholy. The main Allegro moderato has a strong, muscular drive and also demonstrates Bax’s brilliant instrumental technique, drawing a remarkable range of colours from the strings. A wistful recollection of the opening music brings the movement to a serene close. The slow movement opens with a beautiful first violin melody (again, suggestive of Irish folk music). The oboe enters with something rather different: a wistful, cadenza-like passage that is then developed with the strings. While there is plenty of veiled lyricism in this movement, Bax always remains a little questioning, and there’s a slightly uneasy calm at the close. The finale begins in overtly Irish high spirits, but this movement isn’t quite the romp that the opening might suggest. As Lewis Foreman put it, ‘all too soon clouds cover the sun and the spectres return’ in a passage that is slower and more reflective. The dance-like music returns but even at the close there is a brief moment of reflection before the final cadence.

 

Nigel Simeone © 2011

About the Artists

Ensemble 360 musicians

Ensemble 360

Ensemble 360 has gained an enviable reputation across the UK for the quality and integrity of their performances. Formed in 2005, eleven musicians of international standing came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a versatile group comprising five string players, five wind players and a pianist.  Get a glimpse of them in performance here.

The Ensemble 360 musicians share a passion for the music which radiates through each performance. Their enthusiasm, drive and musicality captivate audiences both through the quality of their playing and their engaging spoken introductions. Due to the flexible nature of the group’s line-up the repertoire possibilities are enormous; anything from baroque duos, through classical quartets to new commissions for all eleven players.